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The pieces stolen from the break-in at the Gruenes Gewoelbe
(Green Vault) museum in Dresden contained more than 4,300
diamonds with an estimated value of more than 113 million euros.
They included a breast star of the Polish Order of the White
Eagle and an ornate diamond head-dress. However, police have
said most of the stolen jewels have been recovered.
Six German men, all in their 20s, had been charged with
aggravated gang theft and serious arson.
Five members of the same family were handed sentences of between
four years and four months and six years and two months. A sixth
family member was acquitted.
Prosecutors said the men had sawn through part of a window
grating in advance and re-attached it to get into the building
as quickly as possible during the heist.
The stolen Dresden collection was assembled in the 18th century
by Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and later King of
Poland, who commissioned ever more brilliant jewellery as part
of his rivalry with France's King Louis XIV.
The treasures survived Allied bombing raids in World War Two,
only to be carted off as war booty by the Soviet Union. They
were returned to Dresden, the historic capital of the state of
Saxony, in 1958.
(Reporting by Reuters Television; Writing by Madeline Chambers
and Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Rachel More, William Maclean)
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